I usually love the teaming of Lon Chaney and macabre director Tod Browning, but The Blackbird (1926) did nothing for me. While the movie perfectly captures the seedy Limehouse atmosphere, the story falls flat and outside of the main character, nobody is all that interesting. Chaney does an excellent job as usual, overshadowing Renee Adoree (who would do much better work with Browning in The Show (1928) opposite Jack Gilbert) and Owen Moore. I felt the story could have been stronger, and that the double life element was not utilized as well as it could have been.
All in all, there's nothing TERRIBLE about this film, it's just dreadfully forgettable. Chaney and Browning did much better work in The Unholy Three (1925) and would do much better work in their greatest collaboration of them all, The Unknown (1927).
All in all, there's nothing TERRIBLE about this film, it's just dreadfully forgettable. Chaney and Browning did much better work in The Unholy Three (1925) and would do much better work in their greatest collaboration of them all, The Unknown (1927).